Holding/Coleman 2nd District Race Getting National Media Attention

RALEIGH – Democrats are hopeful that a Blue Wave is cresting on the horizon. Their friends in the media are excited to ride it, and they are even pumping a relatively boring race in the 2nd Congressional District of North Carolina as a test case in the larger partisan struggle.

Recent polling suggests incumbent Republican Congressman George Holding has the advantage over Democrat challenger Linda Coleman, but it’s still too close for comfort considering Holding’s previous outsized wins in the district. That has given reason for the Leftist media hype machine to zero in on this race, wishfully hoping it is representatives of a big midterm swing toward Democrats.

“[…]Coleman is an experienced politician, but she is more excited to talk about her career overseeing human resources at state agencies. Holding is a self-described “boring tax lawyer” and former federal prosecutor with a passion for fiscal policy. When they debated last week, the local newspaper’s headline was about how mild-mannered each was. Holding even defended Coleman from an outside group’s attack ad.

“The fact that he’s a generic Republican is probably what stands out about him,” Jonathan Kappler, a political analyst for state businesses at the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation, told NBC News. “When she was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 2012 and 2016, she kind of performed like a generic Democrat.”

In other words, it’s an utterly unremarkable race — which makes it a fascinating test of the 2018 Democratic wave.

That’s because, in this district, the “generic Democrat” facing the “generic Republican” shouldn’t be able to win this seat.

North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District was drawn by Republican lawmakers in one of the most notoriously gerrymandered states to favor their side in good times and bad. The lines changed in 2016 after courts ruled that they had discriminated against black voters, but Trump still won the district by almost 10 points, and Holding won by more than 13 points.

Yet, somehow, despite lacking any of the excitement or intrigue of other races, it’s become a premier contest, albeit a quiet one. […]”